The Niagara News is the community newspaper of Niagara College located in Welland and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is created and produced by the students of the Niagara College Journalism program.

NC student wins Project Brew

An unfamiliar brewing ingredient earned a Niagara College student the top beer award at the most recent Project Brew festival in downtown St. Catharines this past December.

The winner, Kayson Park, was awarded $4,500 for his original craft beer, Omija Attack, at the triannual event hosted by the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program at Market Square.

“I wanted to make a wheat beer with the specialty fruit Omija that’s grown only in the specific region of South Korea,” says Park. “I really wanted to show how great this ingredient is to my classmates and the brewing community in Canada.”

Omija means “five flavours of fruit herb.” It contains five fragrant flavours of sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spice in one fruit.

Park, an international student from South Korea, chose to study at Niagara College because it is the only school teaching brewing in Canada. His goal is to become a professional brewmaster in Canada or South Korea.

“I didn’t expect to win the Project Brew competition at all,” adds Park. “My classmates were so good and talented… It was really one of the most amazing experiences of my whole life.”

Head Brewer Curtis Bentley, responsible for teaching the practical skills of brewing to the students, says Kayson was always quiet but highly attentive when it came to absorbing the information throughout his studies.

“He formulates a plan and executes, which is a very good quality,” says Bentley. “His beer is a very difficult style to make and I’m really happy for him it turned out so well but I can’t say that I am at all surprised. He works very hard.”

Project Brew finalist and runner-up, Lauren Zimbalatti, is also the planning committee chairwoman for the event. Her original beer featured a Kombucha blended brew she called New Age Funk. It’s inspired by the latest sour beer craze in the craft beer industry. It combines a base style of Belgian Saison blended with fermented green tea and rose lavender chamomile.

“We worked so hard for 16 months and Project Brew is a final moment for us to really show what we got and share our beers with everyone,” says Zimbalatti. “It’s a nice feeling when you can see your product enjoyed by so many people right in front of you.”

April Tyrrell, faculty advisor for the planning of Project Brew, says the event is an opportunity for the students to design a recipe and create an original beer from scratch and participate in the planning and execution in order to highlight the skills they have learned.

“This event allows craft beer enthusiasts to try some very unique beers from talented, up-and-coming brewmasters,” says Tyrrell. “It also allows the general public to enjoy 20 unique beers in a fun community event that includes food vendors and live entertainment.”

The $4,500 award presented to Park is the Praxair Scholarship in which students from all levels of the program tasted each of the graduating students’ beers and scored them using industry standards. The top three beers were then judged by representatives Peter Whittier and Damian O’Flaherty of Praxair, Craig Youdale, dean of the Canadian Food and Wine Institute, Jeff Vlasman, of The Brewmonger, and Dave Collins, of the Resurgence Brewpub.

The scholarship amount covers one semester of tuition and the winning student can use the money however he or she wants.

The three finalists included Ryan Desjardins-Fairbairn, Zimbalatti and Park.

Park said he plans to give half of the money to his parents and spend the rest on travel.

Project Brew has been running for two years. It is celebrated at the end of each term to showcase original works from the graduating class. There have been six events to date and anywhere from 350 to 450 people in attendance.

Tyrrell says the proceeds from this Project Brew will benefit the Matt Soos Memorial Scholarship, which will be presented to a student in the program. The scholarship is in honour of Matt Soos, a graduate of the program who died in August 2015 at the age of 26.

Now that Park, Zimbalatti and Desjardins-Fairbairn have graduated, the next step is to build on the skills they have acquired and look to furthering their brewmaster careers.

Zimbalatti says the diploma itself is very valuable as most employers are looking for candidates that have a formal brewing education.

“The school and alumni and the industry are tightly connected so we have a lot of access to get great jobs,” adds Zimbalatti. “There are a lot of opportunities out there that we get to hear about directly from our college network and that helps a ton.”

Bentley says it’s a proud moment for him to see the students showcase their own beer and can appreciate how “big of a moment” it is for the students in their brewing careers. “As far as what stands out to me about this class was simply their creativity and compatibility,” adds Bentley. “I think they’ve developed a strong bond and no doubt will remain close even after they go down their separate paths. Brewing friends are the best ones.”